How to organize School Photos

It's the end of November all of our kids school photos have come in. Now it's time for me to trim them into four piles (I have 3 girls and a prince):



A personal trimmer works great for this. It's a sturdy little trimmer and trims wallet photos up nicely.




I keep a framed 8x10 photo of each of the kids in our hallway.







I keep all of their 8x10's in the frame and just put the new one on top of the old ones each year. Before I hang the frame though, I take all the pictures out and line them up on the floor or the dining room table for our family to look at. It's a very fun activity! It's amazing to see the changes from preschool on up!

5x7 pictures: I send to one grandma who requests them (and actually displays them in her home, God Bless her!) and file one 5x7 for each of their School Albums. I also file any Class Pictures for their School album as well.

Wallet photos: I keep one wallet photo of each child to update my mini brag book that I carry around in my purse and I give one set to My Hero to update his wallet. When I was a kid, I exchanged wallet photos with friends but that doesn't seem to be the trend around here. I do offer the kids wallet photos of their siblings to update their wallets (pick a good day to ask this).

I use another set of wallet photos to update the Title Pages of our kid's School Albums. I label the picture with their age and grade.



All of the extra wallet photos I tuck inside our Christmas cards going to family.

Pictures and album making can seem overwhelming but when you break it into bite-size steps (15 minutes, 30 minutes) you will be amazed at the things you can accomplish. All of the things that I did this past week were done in several quick steps:

1. trim photos
2. update 8x10 frames (and since I'm a busy mom of 4 kids, I did this in 4 steps on 3 different days!)
3. update mini brag book
4. ask hubby and family about updating their wallets - give them sets
5. update school album title pages (since i do this every year, all i had to do is add the mini wallet photo to the title page, label it and add a 5x7 photo to the appropriate grade section of the album)
6. set aside leftover wallet photos or other sizes to mail to relatives with Christmas packages/cards.

Happy Scrappin',
:DL

December Daily album project!

Want a simple yet creative way to remember the daily happenings, traditions and memories surrounding the holiday season? Pre-decorate an album with 25 (or more) pages, then keep it out where your whole family can access it during December to jot down journal entries, add ticket stubs, photos, and more while the event/day is still fresh in mind. Here's what mine looks like:

This inspirational idea was originated by Ali Edwards and she has step-by-step instructions and examples on her website (aliedwards.com). At a recent scrapbooking retreat, I was inspired by my friend and fellow scrapbook aficionado, Jennifer. She has completed 3 of these December Daily albums...she keeps the previous year's in a bowl on her coffee table so her family can relive holidays past as well as the new one they add to daily during the month of December.

Here is a peek inside my December Daily album:

Each page is numbered. I added a few journaling boxes to the dates I thought would be appropriate but to most of the pages I'll add journal boxes as the day unfolds.

I can't wait to show you the completed pages! The trick is to complete as much as possible ahead of time so that during the busy holidays, you can write in it as you would a journal. This is meant to be fun and creative, not a stressful "nother-thing-to-do!"

I started with trimming plain cardstock to 6.75" x 6.75" - just a random choice...feel free to make yours as big or small as you want.

i liked this size because the pages easily fit into my 3-hole-punch using the bottom 2 hole-punches:

You may want to wallpaper your pages first (adhere pretty Christmas or Hanukkah papers trimmed to size). My friend Jennifer and Ali Edwards both were way more creative than I - using chipboard, acrylic pages, envelopes, etc... I'm sure next year I will branch out a bit but with the limited supplies I had on hand, I just wanted to keep it simple and get it done.

I do like this very first page with advent paper...the open window is actually labeled "1" for December 1st, I'll use the lined paper opposite to write some reflections on our first December Daily album and maybe some hopes and dreams for this Christmas season.

I am saving the kids Christmas Wish Lists too and what better place to tuck those into than this little December Daily album! How fun, years from now, to look back on these December journals.

What about you? What are some ways you are going to remember this magical season? I would love to hear your traditions - please leave a comment.

Happy Scrappin',

:DL